Is Anybody Out There?Embarrasingly Parallel Volunteer Computing

Searching for ET and Transients with SETI@home Volunteers

Dan Werthimer Dan Werthimer University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley

http://seti.berkeley.eduseti.berkeley.edu

SETI before SETI before FPGA’sFPGA’s

NOT FUNDED

NOT FUNDED

NOT FUNDED

Porno in space:

FUNDED!

First Radio SETIFirst Radio SETI

• Nikola Tesla (1899)Nikola Tesla (1899)

– Announces “coherent signals from Mars”Announces “coherent signals from Mars”

• Guglielmo Marconi (1920)Guglielmo Marconi (1920)

– Strange signals from ETStrange signals from ET

• Frank Drake (1960)Frank Drake (1960)

– Project Ozma Project Ozma

– one channel, 1420-1420.4 MHzone channel, 1420-1420.4 MHz

Radio - Targeted Search StrategyRadio - Targeted Search Strategy

Project Phoenix - Seti InstituteProject Phoenix - Seti Institute

Radio - Sky Survey StrategyRadio - Sky Survey Strategy

Serendip, SETI@home - UC BerkeleySerendip, SETI@home - UC Berkeley

Southern Serendip - AustraliaSouthern Serendip - Australia

Meta II - ArgentinaMeta II - Argentina

Seti Italia - BolognaSeti Italia - Bologna

Optical - TargetedOptical - Targeted

UC Berkeley - Pulse and ContinuousUC Berkeley - Pulse and Continuous

Lick Observatory – PulseLick Observatory – Pulse

Harvard – Pulse, Sky survey 2006Harvard – Pulse, Sky survey 2006

Berkeley SETI GroupBerkeley SETI Group

David Anderson, Bob Bankay, Henry Chen, Jeff Cobb, David Anderson, Bob Bankay, Henry Chen, Jeff Cobb,

Josh Von Korff, Eric Korpela, Matt Lebofsky,Josh Von Korff, Eric Korpela, Matt Lebofsky,

Andrew Siemion, Dan Werthimer, Andrew Siemion, Dan Werthimer, Shelley WrightShelley Wright

NSF , NASA, Individual DonorsNSF , NASA, Individual Donors

Agilent, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Sun, Xilinx Agilent, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Sun, Xilinx

UC Berkeley SETI UC Berkeley SETI ProgramsPrograms

NameName Time ScaleTime Scale Search TypeSearch Type

SERENDIPSERENDIP secondsseconds radio sky radio sky surveysurvey

SETI@homeSETI@home mS - secondsmS - seconds radio sky radio sky surveysurvey

AstropulseAstropulse nS - mSnS - mS radio sky radio sky surveysurvey

SEVENDIPSEVENDIP nSnS visible visible targettedtargetted

SPOCKSPOCK 1000 seconds1000 seconds visible visible targettedtargetted

DYSONDYSON IR targettedIR targetted

SERENDIP IVSERENDIP IV

• 168M channels

• 100 MHz Band centered on 1420 MHz

Photos Courtesy NAIC Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSFPhotos Courtesy NAIC Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF

Data storage: NERSC HPSSData storage: NERSC HPSS

(Naional Energy Research Scientific Computing (Naional Energy Research Scientific Computing Center)Center)

The SETI@home ClientThe SETI@home Client

8,464,550 participants (in 226 countries)

2,000 per day

2.3 million years computer time

1,200 years per day

4*1021 floating point operations

200 Tera-flops

SETI@home Statistics

TOTAL RATE

Web site: 2 million hits/dayWeb site: 2 million hits/day 200,000 visitors/day 200,000 visitors/day

(stats & games popular; science less (stats & games popular; science less

popular)popular)

100,000 children, families100,000 children, families (including congress members and their kids)(including congress members and their kids)

> 7,000 schools> 7,000 schools

Desired SKA ParametersDesired SKA Parameters

• Wide bandwidthWide bandwidth

• 1 M beams1 M beams

• fat beamsfat beams

• short dwell times (~ 100 seconds)short dwell times (~ 100 seconds)

Gaussian CandidatesGaussian Candidates

Public Participation Supercomputing GroupPublic Participation Supercomputing Group

David Anderson, Rom Walton, SETI GroupDavid Anderson, Rom Walton, SETI Group

• aka Distributed Computingaka Distributed Computing

• aka “edge resource aggregation”)aka “edge resource aggregation”)

BOINC:BOINC: NSF NSF

• Berkeley Open Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Infrastructure for Network ComputingComputing

– General-purpose distributed General-purpose distributed computing framework.computing framework.

– Open source.Open source.

– Will make distributed Will make distributed computing accessible to computing accessible to those who need it. (Starting those who need it. (Starting from scratch is hard!)from scratch is hard!)

ProjectsProjects• AstronomyAstronomy

– SETI@home (Berkeley) SETI@home (Berkeley)

– Astropulse (Berkeley)Astropulse (Berkeley)

– Einstein@home: gravitational pulsar search (Caltech,…)Einstein@home: gravitational pulsar search (Caltech,…)

– PlanetQuest (SETI Institute)PlanetQuest (SETI Institute)

– Stardust@home (Berkeley, Univ. Washinton,…)Stardust@home (Berkeley, Univ. Washinton,…)

• Earth scienceEarth science

– Climateprediction.net (Oxford)Climateprediction.net (Oxford)

• Biology/MedicineBiology/Medicine

– Folding@home, Predictor@home (Stanford, Scripts)Folding@home, Predictor@home (Stanford, Scripts)

– FightAIDSathome: virtual drug discoveryFightAIDSathome: virtual drug discovery

• PhysicsPhysics

– LHC@home (Cern)LHC@home (Cern)

• OtherOther

– Web indexing/searchWeb indexing/search

– Internet Resource mapping (UC Berkeley)Internet Resource mapping (UC Berkeley)

Rosetta ScreensaverRosetta Screensaver

Where's the computing power?

●2010: 1 billion Internet-connected PCs

●55% privately owned

● If 100M participate:

– 100 PetaFLOPs, 1 Exabyte (10^18) storage

your computers

academic

business

home PCs

Thinking@HomeThinking@Home

(BOSSA)(BOSSA)

Stardust@home...Stardust@home...

Moores Law – Instruments using FPGA’s: 2X per year(1,000,000 over 20 years)

Future SpectrometersFuture Spectrometers

2015 4 THz 400 beams 10 GHz each

2020 128 THz 12,800 beams

2025 4000 THz 40,000 beams

2030 128,000 THz 1M beams

Summary and Summary and ConclusionConclusion

•No ET’s so farNo ET’s so far

•Still working on itStill working on it

SETI HAIKUSETI HAIKU

Searching for lifeSearching for lifeAnswers are revealedAnswers are revealedAbout ourselvesAbout ourselves

Paula Cook, Duke UniversityPaula Cook, Duke University

One million earthlingsOne million earthlingsBounded by optimismBounded by optimismLeave their PC’s onLeave their PC’s on

Dan SeidnerDan Seidner

Thanks toThanks to

• Jeff MockJeff Mock

• Henry Chen, Terry Filiba, Griffin Foster, Henry Chen, Terry Filiba, Griffin Foster, Billy Mallard, Jason Manley, Peter Billy Mallard, Jason Manley, Peter McMahon, Andrew Siemion, Laura Spitler, McMahon, Andrew Siemion, Laura Spitler, Mark Wagner, Mark Wagner,

• All of you All of you